Where has Chris Martin's Magic gone?

I think it's fair to say that Chris Martin has not had the best of seasons so far, with just the 9 goals by the end of January. Where exactly has it gone wrong?

It's fair to say that Martin could be doing a lot worse. With 9 goals he's still our top goalscorer and he does still contribute with assists, but for some reason, things aren't quite clicking. For a player who thrives off bringing other players into the game, his first touch has been poorer than usual this season and he's not holding up the ball as effectively as before.

There are some reasons for this that aren't necessarily down to him. After his breakout season when Steve McClaren first arrived at Derby, opposition teams quickly figured out Derby's game; dropping deeper and swarming around Martin. By not allowing him the time and space to bring the ball down, Martin would grow frustrated and give away fouls in his attempts to win the ball back. Even so, he still managed a remarkable 21 goals the season after, despite being a marked man and missing a chunk of the season through injury.

So we move to this season. McClaren left in the summer, replaced by the more cautious Paul Clement. It's clear that Martins role in the team has changed this season; no longer is he the focal point through which all of our play moves. Clement looked back at last season and saw our collapse without him in the team and decided we should have a Plan B. This new style of play introduced by the manager has been very successful defensively (until the last month or so), but at the expense of leaving Martin an isolated and peripheral figure, flickering in and out of games.

Chris Martin has hit a rough patch for the first time in his Derby career

I think looking at Martin's body language on the pitch he's not too happy at his role change. To further darken his mood, Referees have become wise to his antics; too often he will go down looking for a free kick that he might have received in previous seasons. Not anymore. It's sad to see a player who has single handedly bullied defenses for the past two seasons (and to be fair, on a couple of occasions this season) be so out of form. How does one overcome this predicament? Do you drop him and play someone else? Or just power through hoping he finds form again?

Watching Derby play Manchester United last night, it struck me like a bolt of lightning, although I'm sure I'm not the first to come to this conclusion. As Martin gathered the ball, something incredible happened. Something I've barely seen all season. A midfielder made a run past him. This remarkable occurrence has happened few and far between this season, so imagine my surprise when George Thorne, our defensive midfielder comes charging through to help the attack. Next thing you know, one lovely, lofted ball over the top later, Derby have equalised against Louis van Gaal's team.

Martin's best season since he arrived at Derby was when Craig Bryson (who coincidentally was on the bench last night) was consistently bombing forward, beyond Martin from midfield. This is no coincidence. Bryson's runs forward would often force the opposition defence further back, opening up space for Martin to work in, and the opportunity for him to thread balls in to players further forward. This obviously isn't quite as effective when the opposition plays deliberately deep, but there are ways around this.

Craig Bryson was instrumental to Martin's form (Laurence Griffiths)

The most obvious thing to do is to up the tempo. When Derby were at their swashbuckling best under McClaren they attacked like a pack of feral dogs; touches were kept to a minimum and every movement was decisive. This doesn't allow the opposition to get into a set shape that is difficult to break down and as a bonus, is a joy to watch. This can be difficult to do if there is a lack of movement up front, a lack of options to pass forward to. This can also be remedied by pushing one midfielder forward off the ball; Martin on his own up front isn't capable of that sort of movement, but in tandem with another player he is. It doesn't have to be Bryson who does this; the likes of Johnson, Hendrick and Butterfield are all more than capable of providing this service. Hell, even George Thorne can do it, as he has shown several times this season.

The downside to this is that it leaves you slightly more exposed if the ball is lost to the opposition. McClaren saw this and tried to fix the problem by bringing in Thorne (who was then cruelly injured in pre season) and then Omar Mascarell as a replacement. However, Mascarell wasn't a defensive midfielder by trade and when he played Bryson was told to sit deeper to help him out. The old adage of square pegs and round holes comes to mind. With Thorne fully fit (or at least able to run) this season this shouldn't be a problem.

We know this team is capable of playing fast football and obliterating the opposition, but it seems that there is a mentality holding this team back. A mentality of staying solid no matter what, and only attacking when golden opportunities present themselves. This conservative approach doesn't help Martin in the slightest, it does the opposite, hindering him and in effect minimising the impact he can have on the team.

Being thankful for what we have

Things are looking less than peachy for Derby at the moment, with the team in something of a slump. I find that in moments like this, as a fan who cannot influence the outcome, sometimes the best thing to do is look around at our peers and see how good we have it.

The obvious place to look is at Bolton Wanderers, rooted to the bottom of the table, 7 points from safety. When Derby played them on the opening day of the season, I was there in the stands, silently passing judgement as Will Hughes and Craig Bryson left the field due to injuries (innocuous in both cases). I had some thoughts leaving that match regarding Bolton:

• My main memory of the match will always be Gary Madine elbowing Jason Shackell and Richard Keogh every time he leapt for the ball and the referee letting him get away with it. That probably sounds like sour grapes, but I can assure you it isn't - I love a competitor as much as the next man. 
• Bolton did play some good stuff, and actually dominated us for long stretches of the match. Their main problem was actually putting the ball in the net, which they seemed unable to do. 
• They were as a team very physical, much like Neil Lennon in his playing days, or so I'm told. Committed and physical but never outright dirty (Madine being the exception), with some talented players. 

Neil Lennon has a tough job on his hands at Bolton

 Over half a season later it would appear they have the same problems on the pitch. They've scored only 21 goals, the joint worst tally in the league - along with Charlton. They also have an abysmal goals against record, having conceded 45 goals in 27 matches. However, they are in the middle of pack for near enough every other measurable statistic; possession, shots taken, shots against, pass success percentage. This suggests a weak underbelly, with Bolton being too easy to score against on the counter. I must admit, looking at some of their highlights it looks like there is simply a lack of steel in their defensive midfield, leaving their centre backs far too exposed.

Off the pitch, things look even worse. Facing a winding up order from Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs (HMRC), with near £172.9 Million of debt and wages not being paid on time, Bolton could be in worse trouble by the end of the season. Although owner Eddie Davies is looking to sell up and has offered to wipe off all the debt upon the sale of the club, a buyer doesn't appear to be forthcoming. To keep to books open various sections of the club are being sold off, with the likes of Preston and Wigan interested in buying the club's training ground. This will inevitably affect matters on the pitch as Neil Lennon is forced to sell promising young players like Zach Clough to try and balance the books. But with no salvation in sight, it appears from afar that things will get worse before they get better.

Joining the Trotters in the bottom three are Charlton Athletic. Like Bolton, Charlton are struggling at both ends of the pitch having conceded a stunning 53 goals in 27 matches - the most in the league. I have to be honest, having not really paid attention to Charlton last year and having only really seen them when they visited the iPro, I was initially surprised to see them near the bottom. They looked organised at our place, difficult to break down and had several players who impressed me; Simon Makienok was a handful in the air and Tony Watt buzzed around the pitch menacingly. Even though it was early days, I thought that if they improved their finishing they might be an outside bet for the play offs. 

Unfortunately, like Bolton they are also facing problems off the pitch with fans unhappy at the mismanagement of the club by owner Roland Duchâtelet and chief executive Katrien Meire. Duchâtelet bought the club in January 2014 and with the club sitting at the bottom of the table sacked Chris Powell in March of that year. On the face of it this seems to be a completely justified sacking, but there were rumbling that Powell was sacked, in part because of his refusal to listen to
Duchâtelet's opinions on team selection. After going through managers like wildfire in the next two years, Jose Riga was appointed as head coach of Charlton for the second time in January 2016.

Katrien Meire hasn't endeared herself to the Charlton faithful.

This managerial upheaval is a symptom of mismanagement at board level. The club has no Director of Football, no Chief Scout and Meire has come out and said that going forward the club will fund itself by selling it's youth products. This system can work for teams, with Peterborough being one of it's most successful exponents, but fans of bigger clubs such as Charlton would quite rightly see it as a sign of lack of ambition. Having already sold the likes of Diego Poyet and Joe Gomez to Premier League teams during their tenure at the club they have had some success, but the talent pool will eventually dry out. From the outside looking in, things look bleak with Duchâtelet and co. taking a route similar to the Oystens at Blackpool; both in terms of cost cutting in the playing staff and from a public relations stand point - Meire has recently called fans "weird" for feeling they should have a say in how the club is run. It would appear that Duchâtelet has no intention of selling up either, having repeatedly rejected requests for meetings from former Chief Executive Peter Varney who is willing to bring in new investment to the club. For Charlton, it will be a case of staying up in spite of their owner, not because of him. 

 

Derby fans know all about mismanagement having had several periods of mismanagement in our history; the most recent of which being the tenure of the Three Amigos. It's always good to take stock and see what could have been if we had been taken over by the wrong sort (SISU, the owners of Coventry City were at one point interested in taking us over). Sometimes you don't even have to look that far. I sincerely hope that Bolton and Charlton are able to improve both off and on the pitch; as is often the case in football, it's the fans who have the most to lose when things go wrong.

The 2015 DCFC Oscars

As 2015 comes to an end it has become clear that it's never dull following Derby County. I was originally going to review each month of the year in depth but work has been getting in the way so instead I'll do something a little different. Allow me to introduce The 2015 DCFC Oscars.

Player of the Year
There's been some stiff competition this year for the top award. In the first half of the year the forwards proved their worth, with the likes of Chris Martin dragging us kicking and screaming towards the play-offs. When Martin got injured Darren Bent and Tom Ince took up the slack scoring goal after goal to make up for our leaky defence. In the second half of the year our defence improved dramatically, showing us what we had been missing in the second half of last season.

Honourable Mentions:
Tom Ince - Admittedly not everyones cup of tea but thanks to his goals last season we nearly made it to the play-offs and his goals this season have been invaluable in our rise to the top two.

Richard Keogh - Has been superb since the arrival of Paul Clement and despite what people were saying, played well enough at the end of last season trying to hold together a defence with no holding midfielder, a confidence shot Cyrus Christie next to him and a different CB partner every week.

Winner:

Chris Martin

Chris Martin - There was no doubt in my mind when it came to this. Derby were hovering safely in the play-offs when he got injured against Bournemouth and we were unable to replace him. Coming back into the team towards the end of the season about 2 stone overweight he still nearly guided us in. This season, despite playing a slightly different role he's still our top goalscorer and invaluable to the way we play and I'm confident he'll get his third twenty goal season in a row.

Signing of the Year
The most important thing I like to look for in a siging is impact on the team and value for money. For instance, January siging Tom Ince would have won this comfortably had we not spent £5 Million on him in the summer, which is a bit too dear for my liking.

Tom Ince has been influential in the year since he arrived at Derby

Honourable Mentions:
Tom Ince (Overall) - Slotted into the team seamlessly when he first arrived scoring a very impressive 11 goals in 18 games. Struggled a bit more for goals this season, but has contributed a lot more defensively and has been targetted by opposition teams.

Stephen Warnock - Despite having an incredibly shaky start to his Derby career (I don't think I'll ever truly forgive him for that sending off against Reading), he's proved a lot of people, including me, wrong this season. The very definition of a solid defender, he's alsoo started contributing more going forward.

Bradley Johnson - £6 Million. I'll just let that sink in. I never thought we would spend that much on someone, but here we are. He's taken to this Derby team like a duck to water and his sheer presence seeems to drive the team forward. However, he's wasted when played deep. Get him forward and let him wreck havock on the opposition.

Scott Carson - I have to be honest, I thought we might need a new goalkeeper this season, but I didn't think we needed him. He's proved me wrong commanding his box with an authority we just don't see from Grant and pulling off some cracking saves. 

Winner:

Jason Shackell (Andy Clarke)

Jason Shackell - I didn't realise how much we've missed him during his 3 year detour in Burnley. His organisation of the defence allows everyone else to just get on and do their jobs, and he's so effective that I have to focus on him to see what he actually does. A defence of Keogh and Shackell is what we should have had 3 years ago.

Goal of the Year
There have been some truly great goals scored this year; long range screamers and passing masterpieces.

Honourable Mentions:
Tom Ince vs Huddersfield

Jeff Hendrick vs Millwall

Chris Martin vs Preston

Chris Martin vs Wolves

Tom Ince vs Bristol City

Winner:
George Thorne vs Huddersfield

Best Young Player of the Year

Jamie Hanson

For the past couple seasons Derby's outstanding young talent has been Will Hughes and in many ways he still is - he hasn't even reached his 21st birthday yet! However, for this one I'm going to go for Jamie Hanson. Although he's only made 10 appearences this year and most of these have been from the bench, he's made an ipression on me. Scoring and performing admiraly on his debut against Norwich last season, his tenacious style of play and his passing give me high hopes for the future.



Most Improved Player

Cyrus Christie

There can be only one winner of this one. At the start of 2015 most Derby fans were begging for Cyrus Christie to be removed from the squad as his indecisiveness kept getting the better of him and was beginning to take it's toll not only on him, but the team as well. What a difference it is now, with him being one of our best attacking threats and solid (for the most part) defensively. His gallops down the Derby right are a joy to behold and he has developed a really good understanding with Tom Ince. Next area for improvement Cyrus? Crossing.